The Soldier's Journal

||Entry Two||

May 4th, 1941.

I meant to write another entry yesterday, but ms. Eleanor Francis sat with me for most of the day, and I didn't want to be the one to end any of our riveting conversations by taking out my journal and writing. Of course, they were only riveting because I was apart of the conversation. Jeez, I keep forgetting that these are just a few scribbled words on paper, and you can't fully sense my sarcasm. Well, half sarcasm. Poor lil' Eleanor seems so shy, I have to start, carry, finish, and begin each new conversation. 

But, I'm fine with that. Because, it sure does take a couple minutes, but eventually, I get her laughing. Here, let me give y'all a little recap of what happened. Wait, is recap the right word? Hold on, I have to ask someone. 

Felix says I should've used the word "summary" instead. So, let me rephrase that so I'll look more intelligent, if that's even possible. I'm gonna give y'all a summary of what happened yesterday. Better? Felix said that sounded better. 

Okay, let me start. Well, I woke up at about 5:30, like I usually do – being in the field hospital ain't no exception for me, you know. Nurse Rodgers was the first to come check up on me and make sure I had anything I needed at the moment. I laid in my cot for about another hour until everyone else started wakin' up. Then, ms. Eleanor Francis came in.

She made her rounds to everyone else before she made it over to me. Best for last, obviously. She pulled up a little chair and sat beside my cot and didn't say a word after "hello." Now, we can all probably guess by now, that I don't shut up. I really don't. I go around saying anything random, singing, whistling, you name it. I'll sit there and talk to myself if no one talks back to me.

Anyway, I decided I needed to make her talk. Well, not really "make," 'cause she's the one that can easily get up and walk away if she didn't wanna talk. Now, if I wanna get up to avoid talking, it's gonna take me a hot minute, and even if I take all the time I need, I'm still gonna fall on my face. But I'll fall gracefully and make it look cool 'cause that's what I'm best at.

Now, back to the point. "I wrote in that journal you gave me, ms. Francis." She took her nose out of her lil' papers that she was writing on her clipboard and looked at me. "Is that so?" I nodded my head and probably said something like "it sure is," because, you know, I'm a conversationalist. 

"Did you write in it this morning?" I shook my head about as much as I could. "Oh, no. I haven't written in it since last night, ms. Francis. But I plan on doing it again soon, since I'm a writer now." That got a laugh out of her, which, made me quite proud of myself, since she always seems so serious. 

"Quit callin' me 'ms. Francis.' You can call me Eleanor." Just to get on her nerves a little bit, I "obliged" and called her ms. Francis again. I earned myself another lil' laugh. "Now, you quit that, or I'm gonna start callin' you mr. Myers again." 

On that note, I nodded my head and made it a point to call her Eleanor from then on. Small bits of small talk and a couple jokes here and there was about all that followed. Well, until nurse Rodgers walked in lookin' all stressed and in a hurry. "Eleanor, can you please get mr. Myers started on doing some movements to help him recover. I've got soldiers gettin' hurt left and right." 

Now, I don't mean to be rude, she's a great nurse, but my Lord, she sounds like a warden half the time. ms. Eleanor nodded her head and got up in a hurry – she made sure to straighten her back and square off her shoulders in the presence of nurse Rodgers. With that, she helped me get up and start walking a lil' bit. She told me to lean as much of my weight on her as I needed to, but I tried my hardest not to lean on her too much. My God, I think if I did, we'd both end up in the field hospital needing physical therapy from every available nurse. 

We walked around in circles for about 30 minutes or so, until I really needed to go sit back down. Well, Eleanor needed to sit back down. I was fine – I could've walked around for a whole 5 hours straight. Figured she'd need the rest though, of course. I am a gentleman, after all. 

When it came time to eat supper, we both figured it might be a good idea to walk to the kitchen for some added exercise. We didn't even get 10 steps out of the field hospital til the warden, that is, nurse Rodgers, came walking up to us and half yelled "what on God's green earth are y'all doin'?" Ms. Eleanor got the soul scared out of her. I almost fell over when she straightened her back. Eleanor explained that she figured walking to the field kitchen might would be a good idea for more physical therapy, but mrs. Rodgers quickly shot her down by telling her that'd be too much for the first day of recovery. 

So, we walked back to the field hospital. It was about 15 minutes til ms. Eleanor came back in with a tray of food, along with a few other nurses, for the other soldiers. She sat down in the chair beside me and ate with me, and that was pretty much it. She left when ms. Rodgers came in the check on my wounds. 

You know, if there wasn't a war going on right now, if I hadn't been drafted, and she hadn't volunteered as a nurses aide – if life as we know it, simply wasn't. If everything was back to normal, I think I might ask ms. Eleanor to go see whatever they might be showing at the movie theaters right now. She really does seem like a nice girl. I mean, she's a nurses aide, for God's sake. That's gotta count for a few niceness points. 

But, for now, I'm gonna keep on lookin' forward to havin' to start, carry, finish, and begin each and every conversation, at least until I break her out of her shell a little bit. I'm gettin' a lil' tired – think I might end this now... I still don't really know how to end one of these things..

As always,

Edwin Myers.